Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Sweener88

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 27, 2006
426
1
Im EVERYWHERE!
Hi everyone!

Im about to graduate from university here in Canada and am planning on backpacking in europe over the summer. My Bell Mobility plan recently ended so im using an old "dumb" phone that's many years old. I dont want to get an iPhone plan here because I am expecting to go on this big trip and plan to get an iPhone and unlock it so that i can pop in sim cards as i go in europe (not sure if this is even possible). My two questions are:

1. Can i buy an iphone, unlock it and get different sim cards and pop them in my iPhone as i travel once im in europe? (Starting in the UK and working my way east if that helps)

2. Can I use the GPS that is built into the iPhone, regardless of whether or not I have a sim card in the iPhone to use as my map/route system?

Thank you all for the help!

Sincerely,
Taylor
 
Buy a factory unlocked phone to save yourself any grief.
OR
Buy an iPad 3G for your travels, want a phone add AcroBits and a Bluetooth headset.
 
Thanks for the replies! so the gps in the iPhone ONLY works with a sim card + data plan/wifi (refering to first response)? and do you have any suggestions on buying a factory unlocked iPhone?

Thanks everyone :)
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

U may not need the sim card if the phone is activated and the map app stores data
 
Thanks for the replies! so the gps in the iPhone ONLY works with a sim card + data plan/wifi (refering to first response)? and do you have any suggestions on buying a factory unlocked iPhone?

Thanks everyone :)

GPS and maps/navigation systems are two separate pieces.

All GPS does is provide latitude and longitude, that's it. Unless you have a paper map in your hand, these two numbers by themselves are pretty much useless.

A map or navigation system (like Google Maps, Navigon, TomTom, etc) will use those coordinates and give you relevant maps, directions, nearby points of interest, etc. The map/navigation app is what it sounds like you are interested in. The Google Maps that's on the phone will not work without data, whether it be from Wi-Fi or through cellular data (in which case you would need a SIM with appropriate data plan). Chances are that if it's free, it relies on the internet.

Navigon just recently updated their app to including offline use for the US. I'm not sure about if the European version supports offline use, but it is $70 USD.
 
Okay perfect! so what i could do is download an app that stores the map data and even i dont have a sim card i can still use the maps (based on the stored app data) to get around. Then, if i need to make phone calls i can get a sim card while im overseas. The main thing is knowing that I can use the iphone like a gps system to find my way using apps that have data or the unreliable times that I can find free wifi.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.